Figure 1

Sketch of the bandstructure of the studied SiNCs and trionic recombination. (a) Direct comparison of bandstructures of the investigated SiNCs and a traditional example of direct-bandgap material. (b) The colored areas represent the projection of the electron and hole wavefunctions to k-space (calculated bandstructure of the SiNCs under study). The black dotted curve highlights the band edges in SiNCs and serves as a guide-to-the-eye. The inset shows a detail of the valence-band maximum, with highlighted states approximately 150 meV apart. Modified after Ref. 5. (c) Radiative recombination of a trion. (d) The high-energy wing: a not fully relaxed hole recombines with an electron. (e) The phonon sub-structure; phonon involvement in a recombination process can occur for any of the trionic replicas or the high-energy wing.